


Denial and Double Sided Coins

by Widow_Spyder



Category: Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Eventual Fluff, Happy Ending, I don't really know what to tag, Light Angst, M/M, basically Gen denying that he's helpful the entire time, stubborn Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:02:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21649495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Widow_Spyder/pseuds/Widow_Spyder
Summary: 5 times Gen is sure he’s the most shallow person in the stone world. +1 time everyone proves him wrong.
Relationships: Asagiri Gen & Ishigami Senkuu
Comments: 34
Kudos: 260





	Denial and Double Sided Coins

Perhaps back in the old world, Gen was more serious about sticking to his “image.” A shallow, selfish, and sly little bastard who doesn’t care for anyone but himself. It sounded bad, but he was honestly alright with it. At least that was the case when he didn’t have anyone he really cared for, like in the old world. He had fans, a manager, and stagehands; that was it. And he liked it that way. 

Now he’s starting to have second thoughts. He’s sitting alone in the forest, resting his feet in the cold river water as the moon gives him a dull light to see. He’s been thinking about this for a while now. When he first met Senku and the rest of the science kingdom, he’d only been unpetrified for a good ten days. In other words, his sly and double-faced antics were still deeply ingrained into him. Gen supposes it was necessary to keep up his image back then, but as of 2 years later, he’s starting to have doubts. He can remember Tsukasa telling him that the world they live in now is a blank slate with new chances to change how things were before. At the time, Gen thought he was only talking about the world as a whole. Now he’s starting to think the proclamation had another meaning. 

As much as the mannerisms and speech patterns were ingrained into him, Gen’s getting tired of keeping up with them. Perhaps it’s the lack of shows, schedules, and an audience that’s making him want to change. 

Gen scoffs at the idea. Throughout his life, Gen had made two major changes to his personality. The first was when he went from an innocent kid to a sly teenager who took pleasure in conning his fellow classmates. The second change is when he matures from a conning teenager to an up and coming mentalist with his own show and fanbase. He has to be very careful while maintaining his image in the last change, but after almost four years, he’s memorized everything.

He can’t just delete a change and go back to being an immature teenager or an innocent child. His only choice is to go forward — but where and in which direction? “A less manipulative” magician? “Not a sly” mentalist? 

It’s a stupid idea, Gen thinks. He can’t change this part of him anymore. He forgets about it as he stares up at the stars.

——————

The kids from Ishigami village had decided to visit the shipyard where they’re building the Perseus on the intent to offer their help. The thing is since the kids are so young, they can’t work on any of the ship’s components for their safety. So they’re all stuck for the weekend with nothing to do and looking miserable.

Gen thinks he knows of a way to cheer them up, but it requires some preparation. So he spends all night doing all sorts of crafting and location setting. Technically in the old day, you’d consider his prepping would be perfect for the foreign holiday, Easter. It was pure coincidence that the date lined up perfectly. He ends the night with the last bit of his treasure hunt set up in a well walked area and heads back to his hut to sleep for as long as he can before the day starts.

He’s barely asleep for 45 minutes before loud knocking hits his ears, and he’s forcing himself to get back up. At his door is a very excited Suika whose bouncing up and down, holding Senku’s hand in hers. Senku, on his part, looks exasperated from being dragged away from sleep. 

“Gen! Come quick!” Suika yelled, taking Gen’s hand with her free hand and pulling him out the door. He’s cheering on the inside when he sees the whole group of kids who look way happier than the day before surrounding the first clue he set out. 

“I’m coming. What’s going on?” He asks because no one can know this was his doing. 

“There’s a treasure hunt!” Suika brightly smiles. 

Gen turns towards Senku and mouths, “Treasure hunt?”

Senku just shrugs his shoulders and yawns quietly. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t do this.”

Gen laughs because he obviously knows that. They spend the whole morning with a group of thrilled kids and a couple of cheerful adults, and Gen really thinks he did a job well done. They walk around the shipyard, following the delighted screams of whoever finds the next clue and ended up going down a forest path. 

Because the kids are kids and they don’t like carrying stuff they don’t have to, the clues are somehow passed back to him and Senku, who have to carry them as they move along. Senku takes to reading each clue passed to him, and Gen knows straight away, he’s trying to decipher who exactly orchestrated this whole thing. Gen’s hopeful Senku’s science eye doesn’t catch him, but he doesn’t pay attention to what Senku does as he watches the kids have fun. A gooey feeling has wrapped itself around his heart, and Gen idly realizes this is what it feels like to do something for someone else without a second intention behind it. 

It’s strange, and he’s not sure if he likes it or not despite the smile on his face. 

Meanwhile, Senku has been studying the sheets of paper for a while now. He’s run through almost every possible person who could’ve accomplished this and hasn’t made a breakthrough yet. He reads the clues over, noting the easy to read words that the kids would have learned in the newly established school in Ishigami village, how there is a small drawing on each card that looks so familiar to him. He thinks back through his memories, and though it takes a while, he manages to remember where he had seen it before. Back in the old world, there was a particular trashy book Taiju and Yuzuriha talked about at school. He only got a glance at it before he lost interest, but he remembers the little symbol on the bottom of every page where the page number is. The book was called “Magic Psychology” by the famous magician and mentalist, Asagiri Gen. Senku’s smirking and hands the cards to Gen, who takes it without paying attention. 

“How elaborate of you mentalist,” Senku says. “And disgustingly sweet.”

“Hmm?” Gen snaps out of his stupor and looks at Senku with his eyebrow quirked up in confusion. “Did you say something, Senku-chan?”

“Nope, nothing.” Senku chuckles, lightly punching Gen’s shoulder, which makes him even more confused. “Just had a revelation is all.” 

“Oh? Care to enlighten me?” 

Senku waves him off, still laughing a little. “Nothing special. Just didn’t think you cared so much for them.” 

“Me?” Gen stumbles over a root before straightening and mentally listing off when and how Senku could’ve figured it out. “You think I did this?” He asked in fake disbelief. 

“The handwriting on the card is the same as yours.”

_Oh, so that’s how._ “Is not.” 

“Oh, but it is, mentalist.” Senku pointed at the card then up to the air when he was about to do some crazy science equation. “Should I explain to you the details of fingerprint handwriting?”

“Spare me the effort.” Gen knocked the hand down before Senku got too excited. “It wasn’t me.”

Senku sighed. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with him. “Fine. Who else could’ve done this then?”

“Perhaps, Ryusui? He does love treasure, and he is spotting the clues before any of the children can.”

“That’s because our dear captain is a fast working adult with a greedy side.” Senku frowned, looking forward at Ryusui, surrounded by a bunch of kids who want to see the clue he found. “Why can’t you just admit it was you?” He asked. 

_Because you would tease me for the next century about it?_ “Because it wasn’t me?”

“I think you can drop that belief because I’ve already figured out it was ten billion percent, you.” 

Gen nervously laughs. “I think your science might be failing you, Senku-chan.”

Senku’s eyes hardened as he took to fiercely staring through Gen’s soul. “My science never fails me, mentalist.”

Gen stares back at him for a while before letting his shoulders drop and sighing. “They needed a morale boost, and with children, you have to work differently than you do with adults.”

Senku also stopped staring and let a smile take over his face. “So an entire treasure hunt spanning the whole of the shipyard and forest? How long did this take you?”

“Not that long,” Gen says, rather too quickly, Senku thinks. Gen must know Senku doubts his words because a second later, he’s also smiling at him. “It’s nothing, Senku-chan. Moping kids are the worst creatures to deal with, so if anything, I’ve spared you all that experience.” 

Senku’s about to retort when Ryusui and the kids’ triumphant screams interrupt them, signaling that they found the hidden treasure. They look ahead and arrive at the opening in the forest, where multiple baskets are filled with all sorts of goodies inside. The rest of the day is spent with a rather plentiful picnic in a flower grove in the peaceful woods with happy kids and equally delighted adults. Senku takes to keep looking at Gen with a shit-eating grin on his face because Gen’s also smiling and laughing with the kids, and honestly, he can’t believe the bastard was trying to deny he did this out of the goodness in his heart. 

Gen avoids Senku’s stare the entire time but does manage to catch his eye sometimes to which he immediately turns away with a faint blush on his cheek. Senku doesn’t say anything. He can tell the others later.

———————

Despite their carefulness and the miracle that is science’s medications, the kingdom of science doesn’t manage to avoid a flu outbreak. Senku’s got everyone who is infected on quarantine and makes the caretakers a strict time table on when they should go in and help. It’s a bit much, but Senku’s just being cautious so the virus doesn’t spread.

The only thing is that the walls of the hut the sick are in no way soundproof, and you can practically hear their wails all the way from Ishigami village. The sound is equivalent to nails on a chalkboard for Gen, so he spends an afternoon brewing what he calls “the cure-all tea,” that he found on the internet back in the old world when he got sick. It helped him a lot, so he figures it’ll help them too; as long as it gets them to stop whining, his brain reasons. 

At night when everyone is asleep, he sneaks into the quarantine and places the lidded cups of hot tea on the nightstands for everyone to wake up to. He also sets some lavender near their pillows for extra measure and leaves as quietly as he came. 

It was an oddly nice thing to do for them, but Gen squashes that door before it can open. The thing is, Gen, needs these people to get better soon, or he’ll have to take over some of their jobs while they’re out. As Senku would say, it’s the most logical thing to do to preserve his own interest — in not doing any manual labor. 

Sure enough, morning comes, and the sheer volume of moaning has significantly lowered. So much so that Senku walks in with sheer surprise plastered on his face when he sees most of the patients sitting up and walking around. 

“Don’t tell me the medicine cured you already.” Senku walks towards the bunk assigned to Chrome, who was one of the infected. 

“Actually, I think it did. I feel much better now, Senku.” Chrome smiles, and his voice does sound a bit better now. “After the tea, I think the worst of it’s gone.”

Senku’s next question is forgotten immediately at that. “What tea?” He asks. 

“The tea you left for us.” Chrome gestured towards the empty cup on the table next to him. “Despite being nauseous, it actually really helped.”

“And clear our sinuses.” Another villager’s voice added in. 

Chrome nodded. “That too.” 

Senku picked up the cup and looked it over in his hand. It was a regular clay cup from the kitchen where they stocked hundreds of them for everyone to use. He could smell something familiar coming off of these cups, though. Experimentally, he brought the cup as close as he was comfortable with to face and took note of what he now knew was ginger and peppermint.

While the ingredients weren’t rare, Senku knew there weren’t many people here who would know where to find them. It was something only their resident flower expert would know. 

After a lecture on resting to the still “under the weather” patients, Senku excused himself and made his way to Gen’s hut. 

“Gen?” Senku called as he walked inside the confines of the hut. 

“Hello, Senku-chan!” Gen cheerfully greeted him. It looked like he was in the middle of sewing together a hole that was in a blanket. “How’re your patients?” Gen asked. 

“They’re alright.” Senku shrugged as he walked over and sat down in front of Gen. He took Gen’s hands in his own and brought them close to his face, making Gen drop the needle and tread. 

“Senku-chan?” Gen felt his face flush as Senku started smelling his hands. “Wha- what are you doing?” 

“Ginger and peppermint,” Senku confirmed, abruptly dropping Gen’s hands. “Really, mentalist? You brewed tea for everyone?”

_So much for denying it,_ Gen thought. Sheesh, Senku, works fast. “Well… We can’t have everyone down with the flu when we desperately need the manpower.” 

“And you risked exposure by delivering it yourself.” Senku face-palmed. “Did you even wear a mask?”

“Of course.” Gen lied. He had honestly forgotten about that. 

Senku squinted at him before groaning. “You liar.” 

“You wound me, Senku-chan.” Gen laughed. 

Senku scowled as he stood up. “I will wound you if you get sick from your idiocy.”

“Oh, relax, Senku-chan.” Gen waved at him, deciding to remain seated to finish sewing his blanket. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” He says, picking up the fallen thread and needle. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure the great caring mentalist will be just fine.”

“Now hold on just a minute.” Gen stopped Senku before he could leave. He crossed his arms and frowned at him. “I’m not caring.”

“Really? You didn’t do this out of the kindness of your heart?” 

Gen made a disgusted face. “Ew, I did this so that everyone would get better faster so our project can get going again.”

“Even though you hate the manual labor that comes with it?” Senku asked, quirking his eyebrow up when he’s satisfied with something. 

“Like I said, we need the manpower.” Gen uncrossed his arms and made himself take on a more calm tone. “The more manpower we have, the less awful labor I have to do.” 

“Sure,” Senku smirked at him before opening the door. “Keep telling yourself that.” 

“Because it’s true?”

“Because you’re the only one who still believes that,” Senku said, closing the door before Gen has a chance to respond.

———————

There’s a day that they need Suika’s help for part of a project, so she’s driven from Ishigami village to the shipyard in the car by Ukyo, who also decides to visit. The only problem is that while they’re driving, Chalk, who is Suika’s dog, jumps out of her arms when she’s asleep in the back and effectively becomes lost.

Suika becomes heartbroken when she spends the whole day looking around for Chalk and has no success. So much so that she can’t focus on helping and mopes around the entire day. 

Gen hates her sad face, even with the melon mask on her head. He can’t relate since he’s never had a pet before as showbusiness made that impossible, but he still knows the feeling of loss all too well. He’s not even paying attention to what he’s doing, until he finds himself deep in the woods, following a little bark that he can recognize quite well as Suika’s furry companion. 

There at the bottom of a hill is a familiar white dog staring up at him and waving his tail. Gen smiles and tries to make his way down the slope but ends up tripping in some mud and falls the rest of the way. Gen sighed as he recovered and walked over to pick up Chalk from his place in the mud. Gen’s clothes were all dirty, which will be a pain to wash out, but as long as Suika is happy, it’s okay. 

When he finally arrives back to the village, it’s the afternoon, and his feet are killing him, but he continues until he finds Suika. She’s still moping with Ukyo, Yuzuriha, Taiju, and Kohaku all surrounding her, trying to get her to cheer up. 

Gen smiles and tightens his hold on Chalk. “Suika-chan!” He yells, and once she looks at him, her eyes widen like dinner plates behind the mask. “Look who I found!” Gen cheers as he lets Chalk out of his arms and watches as both owner and dog race towards each other in a happy reunion. 

“Thank you!” Suika laughs as Chalk licks her face. They’re both sitting on the ground and hugging it out while Taiju and Yuzuriha fawn over them when Ukyo and Kohaku approach him. 

“Amazing. Where’d you find him?” Ukyo asks him. 

Gen takes a second to respond. It would be bad for his image if they knew he had been looking for the dog for hours now. “Just outside the forest tree line.”

Kohaku nudged his shoulder and pinched a piece of coat. “How’d you get so dirty?” 

“Mud ditch,” Gen explains his lie with ease. “Little thing dodged me before I could grab it, and I fell.”

“There’s a piece of dandelion root in your hair,” Ukyo says, reaching up and picking it out of Gen’s hair.

“Is there?” Gen takes the root, and after a second of examining it, throws it to the ground and tries brushing himself off. “Oh, thank you. I should probably wash up soon.” 

“How’d you get dandelion roots in your hair?” Kohaku asks. “Don’t they only grow near the north end of the river?”

“Yeah, it seems pretty far from the tree line.” Ukyo crosses his arms with a smirk on his face, and Gen feels himself sweat a little in embarrassment. 

“You both know I work with all kinds of flowers and plants, right?” Gen smiled with faked skills. “Probably got in when I was working on my flower project.” 

Ukyo squints at him, and Gen mentally slaps himself when he remembers Ukyo’s super hearing can probably tell when he’s lying. “Gen, were you looking for Suika’s dog?”

He’s definitely sweating now as he chuckles. “Of course not. Do I look like I have that kind of time?” 

“Don’t know, no one has seen you since this morning,” Ukyo responds, quick as a whip. Gen kind of feels like this is an interrogation. One, he needs to defuse fast. 

“It’s nice to know the conspiracy theorist part of your brains is working, but it’s a lot simpler than you think,” Gen smirks as he works his voice into the perfect tone so Ukyo can’t hear the difference of when he tells the truth and a lie. “I was working on my project when I needed more materials, and I just so happened to stumble upon the dog when I was returning.”

It’s silent before Ukyo visibly relaxes and lets Gen make his escape. “So simple.” He says. 

“Right?” Gen’s relieved it worked. “Now, I hate to cut you off, but I should really clean my clothes before they stain.” With that, he takes off before the conversation can go somewhere else. 

The two watch Gen leave before Ukyo turns to Kohaku and asks. “You believe that?”

“Not for a second.” Kohaku smiles. “Especially since I saw Gen finish his project two days ago.”

There’s a beat before they both laugh and walk back to talk with Suika and the others about what had happened.

———————

Despite having over 50 people in the shipyard working, they were running ragged with manpower. The explorers needed new baskets to carry their items in, and no one had time to make them. Senku was running through dozens of different time schedules for everyone when he walked into the storage room for paper. What he wasn’t expecting was seeing six new baskets sat on the table, ready for use. Senku had, to be honest, he was amazed at Kaseki’s diligence. The latter was supposed to be melding engine tubes, and to find the time to weave the baskets on top of that was amazing.

Which is why he’s confused when he goes to ask just how Kaseki had found the time to make them, only for him to be equally as confused as Senku.

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Kaseki asks, examining the baskets. “I didn’t make these.” He hands the basket to Kohaku, who is also with them.

Now that he’s really looking at it, Senku realizes he’s right. 

They were woven differently than how Kaseki usually did it. The knots were more intricate than Kaseki’s simple design, making them even sturdier than they were before. But there was no way, Kaseki couldn’t have done these and work on molding the engine metal at the same time. The knot design on one basket would’ve taken at least half an hour, and there were six baskets in total. Accounting for the time in between each basket, it would’ve taken the person over 3 - 4 hours to make all of them. Hardly anyone in the village had that kind of free time. 

“So who made them?” Kohaku asked, handing the basket back to Senku.

“That’s what we’re going to find out.” Senku declares. 

Kaseki nodded before speaking up. “You can ask Gen.” Senku and Kohaku turned and looked at him, confused. “He’s helped me make them before back in Ishigami village. He might know who did it.” Kaseki elaborated for them. 

After extending their thanks for the information, both headed out and walked to Gen’s hut. Mannerisms are less important now in the stone world, so they enter without knocking as usual only to find the candles burnt out, the curtains closed, and Gen asleep on his mattress in the middle of the room. He’s turned away from them on his side but quite obviously deep in dreamland. 

“I guess it wasn’t him if he’s been asleep this whole time,” Kohaku whispered to Senku. 

Senku shook his head. “Nope. Look at his fingers.” 

Senku is right. After looking closer at them, you can see that Gen’s fingers are red and blistered, signifying the work put into crafting those baskets for hours. 

Kohaku smiled. “So, he did make them.” 

“Yeah. Though he’ll probably deny it later.” Senku smirked as he nudged her shoulder, and they both turned to head out the door. “Let’s keep this to ourselves for now.”

“Hmph, men really are a pain in the ass.” Kohaku huffed, and yet there was a smile on her face. “You don’t have to act so stoically if you want to help.” 

Senku laughed. “He probably thinks it’ll cramp his style or whatever.” 

“Like I said, a pain.”

They both smile at that as they walk out and close the door behind them.

———————

Gen loves the skills he learned as a mentalist. It lets him read people in ways the average person could never, which is how he knows that despite her calm demeanor, Francois is starting to get run ragged from cooking and baking. He doesn’t blame her, though. He watches as she has to expertly dodge at least ten people from stealing what she has on a tray and put it in the oven before anyone can get a lick of what she’s making. He feels a little bad. The Ishigami villagers are starting to learn impatience from the modern people, making it difficult for Francois to do her job.

So with a grand gesture, he makes his entrance and tells them that the last person to move from a sitting position on the ground gets 5,000 dragos. Like obedient puppies, they all sit and stay as still as possible, effectively leaving Francois alone. 

Francois smiles and thanks him before gesturing to follow her into the kitchen. The next thing Gen knows is that he’s elbow deep in flour, and his hands are starting to get sore from kneading a bunch of bread dough. It’s silent between them, and he finds he likes that as he works. His old job always entitled him to listen to people talk for hours, and now he was enjoying the silence. He doesn’t make an excuse to leave either because this was honestly so much better than what anyone else could’ve made him do today. He actually thinks he might like giving her his help. 

He prepares what he can, then she fixes what he failed to do correctly and takes it out to the oven. All the while, the waiting villagers watch from their seats on the ground, not moving an inch, despite the yummy smell. 

Gen doesn’t sneak in a lick of anything, mainly because he doesn’t want to be rude, and honestly, he’s a little scared of what Francois would do to him if he did. He’s too distracted on a particularly gooey piece of dough that’s sticking to his fingers to notice the kitchen door opening and Senku walking up behind him. 

“Having fun baking mentalist?” 

Gen yelps and turns around to face a smirking Senku. He feels his face flush as Senku laughs at his reaction. There’s no excuse he can come up with for what Senku just walked into. Here he was, stripped down to one layer with no sleeves and absolutely covered in flour. But Gen recovers fast enough, given his unique skills. 

“I’m not really a help.” He shrugs. “Baking isn’t my thing.”

“Oh, let me guess.” Senku brushed some flour off Gen’s shoulder. “You’re going to come up with this big excuse to deny the fact that you’re being helpful because you’re the most shallow mentalist in the stone world.”

Gen smiles at the sarcastic hand movements Senku does to emphasize his point. “It’s nice that you acknowledge it. And I’m not about to deny that I wasn’t trying to help.” 

“But?”

Gen rolls his eyes but continues. _“And yet,_ this wasn’t something I did out of the kindness of my heart.” 

“Is it not dear, Gen?” Francois asked, popping up out of nowhere.

“Sorry Francois. I just came here to avoid the manual labor I heard Kaseki talk about this morning.” That part was also true. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but when he heard Kaseki talking about grabbing some “extra” people to help him, Gen knew he would be on that list. 

“Oh, well, it was nice to have your help anyway.” She smiles and places a hot tray on the table. Then she picks up a small piece of bread and gives it to him. “As a reward.” She explains.

“Oh thanks.” Gen mumbles, fumbling with the hot piece of dough before smirking. “I’m not twelve, you know, I don’t need a reward.”

Francois matches his smirk with her own. “Oh? Is that not why you decided to bake with me?” 

It’s wasn’t _originally,_ but Gen takes the given excuse. “Can see through me quite well, can’t you?”

“I make it my responsibility to know everything about the people master Ryusui works with and respects.”

Senku nudges him in the hip with a scoff. “Respect him and his stubbornness?”

Gen lightly elbowed Senku in the ribs with an involuntary smile on his face. “How harsh, Senku-chan!”

“Ow!” Senku laughed before stealing Gen’s cookie out of his hand and shoving it in his mouth. Gen gasps and dramatically holds his heart as if he were physically shot. 

“You fiend!”

“Yeah, yeah, caring mentalist.” Senku waves at him as he walks back outside. “I’m sure Francois is nice enough to give you another one.” 

“I am not caring!” Gen yells after him. 

“Whatever you say!”

———————

It’s a bright and sunny morning when Gen decides to head out for the day. The weather had been nice recently, and despite wanting to bask in it, he had a job to do today. During the previous day’s dinner, Senku had pulled him aside and asked if he could help him with a secret project. Gen just hopes it won’t be too hard to pull off — though he doesn’t actually get to find out because he can’t find the scientist for the life of him.

Luckily he spots Kohaku and few others walking towards him and opts to ask them. “Kohaku-chan! Have you seen Senku-chan anywhere?”

“I’m sorry?” Kohaku tilted her head in confusion at him. “Who is Senku-chan?”

“Huh?” Now Gen’s equally as confused. _What does she mean, “who is Senku-chan?”_

“Are you alright, Gen?” Kohaku snaps him out of his thoughts and places a hand on his forehead. “Maybe you should take a nap if you’re imagining people.” She says before gesturing to the others to follow her. Gen doesn’t have a chance to respond before they’re gone.

_That was weird. Perhaps Kohaku was sick or something? Better to ask someone else._ And who better than Taiju and Yuzuriha who were crouched over some piles of fabric. 

“Hey, have you two seen Senku-chan?” Gen asked, jogging over to them. 

“Who?” Yuzuriha squeaks at him. 

“What do you mean, who?” Gen’s starting to worry now. “Ishigami Senku? The most brilliant scientist this world has come to know, plans on saving all of humanity, is your childhood best friend…?”

“Don’t know who you’re talking about!” Yuzuriha yells to which Taiju yells after, “Me either!” Then they’re both taking off in the opposite direction before Gen can respond again. 

Gen’s mind fills in the blanks pretty fast. This was a scheme. Gen knows when someone is lying, and it’s obvious they were. He just can’t figure out what they’re planning yet. A small part of his mind tells him he should really find Senku, though. 

So when he spots Suika, he immediately rushes towards her and crouches down to face her. “Suika-chan! I have a question for you.”

“Ye-yes?” She stutters, and Gen knows she’s just as bad at lying as Yuzuriha and Taiju. 

“Where’s Senku-chan?”

There’s a moment that’s brief and fast, but Gen catches it. Suika glanced towards a specific direction in the woods before bowing her head and stammering out a “who’s that?” and taking off, the same as Yuzuriha and Taiju. It’s alright though; Gen’s got all the information he needs.

After making sure he’s not followed, Gen ran through the forest, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. He does locate a cave and nearly vomits at the sight that greets him. He’s found Senku, who is unconscious and bleeding from a head wound at the back of the cave. 

“Senku-chan!?” He whisper yells as not to alert anyone nearby. Now he knows why the others were acting weird. He can’t believe it, though. _Was this all a murder plot?!_ He can hear his mind screaming. 

“Damnit.” Gen groans as he maneuvers Senku’s body so that he can carry him on his back. He’ll think of the “why,” once he and Senku were somewhere other than this cave. He quickly thinks of locations and settles on his own hut as the best. 

If the village had orchestrated this, then obviously they wouldn’t be willing to help and may even try to finish the job with him included. 

Once he made sure no one was looking, he all but ran inside his hut and quickly laid Senku down on his bed. The room was dark, save for the candle he had lit since he had closed the curtains for optimal privacy. 

Finally, Gen caught his breath, and shakily started examining Senku’s injuries. After finding a pulse, Gen took a cloth and put as much pressure as he could on the head wound. It seemed to have stopped bleeding, which Gen couldn’t be sure was a relief or not. He didn’t know much about medical stuff. His mind started flitting through possible situations that would have led to this. What was their motive? It had to be something big for Senku’s lifelong friends to betray him too.

A sharp knock on his door jolted him out of his thoughts, making him scramble to cover Senku’s body with a blanket and head to the door. After composing himself, he opened the door fast enough that he could walk out and close it behind him, without anyone seeing Senku inside. 

“Hello, Gen.” Kohaku greeted him as the one who knocked on his door. 

Gen bowed slightly, not taking his eyes off her. “Kohaku-chan.” 

“How are you feeling?” She asks him though her tone is a lot more dead than usual. 

“Just fine now.” Gen smiled and took to lying his way through this. “A nap was all I needed.”

Kohaku smiled. “Told you, this Senku-chan was just part of your imagination.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“By the way, our resident explorers just came back, and there’s a cave outside the area that’s too dangerous for anyone to go in, so under no circumstances are you or anyone else allowed to go.” She tells him, and Gen gulps. 

“Of course.” 

It’s silent between them for what feels like ages. Gen can start to feel sweat run down his back in anxiety. 

“Gen,” Kohaku says, voice sharp and almost angry sounding. 

“Ye-” Gen tries to answer but stops when Kohaku slams a fist to the wall behind him and pins him where he is. Her face is mere centimeters away from his, and he can quite obviously see the terrifying fury in her eyes. 

“You know where he is, don’t you?” She whispers in his ear. _So Kohaku orchestrated this?! Why?!_

“Where who is?” Gen asks, keeping his composure just as sharp as her eyes. 

“Don’t play dumb. I’ll feed your body parts to the bears.”

“That seems a bit violent.” Gen feels himself shudder. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about, dear Kohaku-chan.” 

It’s silent before she steps back. “Good. Forget I said anything.”

“Of course.” Gen feels like choking up in relief. 

“Oh, and by the way.” Kohaku smiled brightly. 

“Got you!” A familiar voice yelled from behind him.

“Eh?” Is all Gen can say before he’s tackled to the ground and left dazed before everyone he knows is popping up out of nowhere, all yelling “Surprise!”

“The hell is this?” Gen asks because it’s quite obvious he was tricked, and he doesn’t tend to like being on that end of the spectrum. _He tricks people, not the other way around._

“Really? The surprise not enough of a hint for you, mentalist?” Senku asks, bending down and flicking his forehead. “What’s today’s date?” 

“Do I have to answer that?” Gen groans to which Senku smiles even wider than he already is. “Fine, it’s -” Gen’s eyes widened before he could finish. Gen can’t tell what he disbeliefs more. The fact that _he_ of all people fell for a trick or the fact that he completely forgot today was his —

“Hehe, happy birthday, mentalist.” Senku chuckles. “Consider this revenge for the observatory.” 

Now Gen realizes what this was, why the “blood” on Senku’s head is starting to look more and more like berry juice. Why Yuzuriha, Taiju, and Suika all scrambled through their terrible lies about who Senku was. Gen feels himself flush as he comes to terms with the fact that he had been duped the whole time. “Huh?!” He finds himself yelling. 

“Although it is a little sad that you didn’t know it was today,” Kohaku adds in. 

Gen shakes his head. “And this whole crazy affair was?”

“A test.” Senku answers.

“Yeah, I got that much.” Gen scowled. “A test to prove what?”

“That you, Asagiri Gen, are, in fact, a caring person. Or in other words, the least shallow person in the current stone world.” 

Gen sputters but holds himself form. “Not that’s not fair. How the hell did this experiment prove that?”

“Because you could’ve left me in that cave and let me die if it meant you could get something better than I could offer you. Like the whole science kingdom to yourself.” Senku explains. “But you deliberately carried me to your hut, stashed me away and lied to Kohaku of all people about knowing where I was and who I was, even after she threatened to kill you.” 

“Some honorable mentions also include finding Suika’s dog, brewing us tea when we were sick.” Chrome steps up from behind Senku. 

“Weaving all those baskets in my place, saved me a lot of time,” Kaseki adds. 

Francois nods as well. “And I greatly appreciated your desire to help me in the kitchen.” 

“The treasure hunt was very fun too!” Suika jumps up and down as Chalk barks at her feet. 

Senku laughs because Gen is completely red in the face and gawking at them as if they had all grown an extra head. “Got nothing to say mentalist?” 

“You’re so cruel!” Gen pouts like a little kid. “How can I respond when you all gang up on me?” 

“So, you admit we’re right?” Senku asks. 

“Never.” 

Senku’s smirking even harder now. “Liar.” 

“I hate you all.” Gen huffed.

“Nah, you love us.” Ukyo smiles as everyone agrees. Gen wants to punch something. 

“I most certainly do not.”

“Well,” Senku says, lowering a hand to help him up. “You can hate us over the cake that Francois made.” 

Gen stares before sighing and taking the outstretched hand, letting himself be pulled to his feet. From there, he’s led to the main dining area where many things had been set up in preparation for this, including a double-layered cake with his favorite flowers stacked on top. 

He listens to the behind the scenes of their plan and how long they had been waiting for the day to come, making Gen flush even deeper than before. 

It’s when Gen’s on his third piece of cake that he suddenly takes in where he is. The sound of laughter coming from everyone he’s grown to care about and the overall comfortableness in the air is making him smile. He thinks maybe change is possible for him. Not a huge one this time, but a small one could be acceptable. He won’t actively change who he is entirely, but perhaps he can be a bit more open with helping.

Gen laughs as he finds his next few thoughts equally as gross. He pushes back those thoughts for now and shoves more cake into his mouth as he watches the funny scene unfold before him. He catches Senku’s eyes to which the latter fully turns towards him and gives him a full and bright smile. 

Gen smiles back. He’ll go over those thoughts later, he decides.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been so long since I've written a 5 plus 1 fanfic, I hope it's alright! It's also very long so thank you for keeping up with it till this point!
> 
> Want fic updates and other sengen content? I have a tumblr! @/ Widow-Spyder
> 
> Thank you very much for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it!


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